Main menu

Media Cover Shutdown Victims over Obamacare Victims 100 to 1

"Real consequences for real people."

Since October 1, when the government shutdown began, the media have run dozens upon dozens of stories about victims of the shutdown. Over the same period of time, the media have run virtually no stories about businesses suffering thanks to Obamacare, low-income people victimized by the new Obamacare tax, and economic chaos thanks to the impact of Obamacare. That’s particularly ridiculous given that with the furloughed federal workers soon to be back at their desks and paid for their furloughed time, the number of people seriously hurt by the government shutdown is minute, as opposed to the widespread damage from Obamacare.

The Washington Post was a key offender in its bias. Between October 1 and October 16, the Washington Post website published over 220 stories both from its own writers and the wires focusing on the supposedly horrible effects of the government shutdown. Most obviously, the Post ran a story declaring, simply, “Government shutdown generates stories of misery around the country.” But when it came to the implementation of Obamacare, though the Post ran more than 80 stories, many of them on failures of the Obamacare website, it apparently ran a grand total of 3 that focused mainly on the individuals and small businesses victimized by Obamacare itself.

The story was the same on television. From October 1 to October 15, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer spent approximately 21 minutes over the course of eight broadcasts covering stories of the shutdown and its effects on victims. Over the course of the same period, ABC News covered Obamacare twice, and then only to point out website difficulties quickly but praise Obamacare overall. On October 1, for example, a reporter stated, “When Vanessa previously shopped around for her family of four, she was quoted $2,000 a month. Today she found a plan for just $427!” That same night, ABC News quoted different Americans complaining about the shutdown: “I live from paycheck to paycheck unfortunately.” “These are real people's lives being affected and ruined.” “I'm getting tired of feeling like a ping-pong ball.”

There were no stories of victims of Obamacare in that entire period.

Brian Williams’ NBC Nightly News was no better. From October 1 to October 16, the program spent over 30 minutes discussing victims of the government shutdown. Victims included a former Navy diver (“if it wasn't for the check, we'd lose everything”), furloughed federal workers (“yeah, that will put us behind, it will put us very behind as far as trying to catch up with bills”), and local restaurant workers near federal centers (“it was rough, last week was rough, I had a day where I made like $9 total”). All Obamacare coverage was relegated to discussion of website glitches, but no actual victims of Obamacare were shown (all victims were people in need of healthcare whom Obamacare would help once the glitches were ironed out).

How about CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley? Aside from segments about the Obamacare glitches (which, again, underscored the idea that people need Obamacare but were having trouble obtaining it, and took about nine minutes of total airtime), there were no stories about victims of Obamacare. There was a two minute segment about evil Republican governors who hadn’t expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, however.

CBS rolled out approximately 27 minutes worth of stories on government shutdown victims, including frustrated federal workers complaining about not being paid, lack of military death benefits (“New casualties of this battle, the families of Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice”), and even the owner of a Joshua Tree store suffering from the parks shutdown (“closing the parks now would be like closing the malls at Christmas”).

Overall, the Washington Post and New York Times covered victims of the government shutdown over victims of Obamacare by a margin of 100 to 1; ABC, NBC, and CBS News all covered victims of the government shutdown over victims of Obamacare by a margin of over 78 minutes to zero.